Mt Eden driveway death: Motorist Jeyakaran Abraham sentenced

Jeyakaran Abraham was sentenced today in Auckland District Court. Photo / NZME

A family's afternoon car washing session in the driveway of an Auckland residence resulted in tragedy last year after a man tried to move one of the cars while wearing jandals and without adjusting the driver's seat to his height.

Jeyakaran Samuel Abraham's attempt to save a few seconds by not adjusting the seat while moving the 4WD vehicle resulted in him accidentally accelerating into his brother-in-law, who was then pinned against a brick wall, court documents state.

Abraham, 49, stood before Judge Kathryn Maxwell in Auckland District Court today as he sought a discharge without conviction for the death of 54-year-old Thiruppathi Soundararajan, a realtor and leader in Auckland's South Indian community who was better known as "Soundhar".

The judge approved his request.

"It was a tragic accident and I don't think anyone would dispute that, Mr Abraham," Judge Maxwell said, pointing out that in the 17 months since the accident the defendant has logged 175 hours of voluntary community service. "From the court's perspective, you have attempted to put right as best you can what happened that day."

Abraham pleaded guilty earlier this year to careless use of a vehicle causing death (not on a road), which carries a maximum possible sentence of three months' imprisonment.

Police said Abraham, his wife and his brother-in-law were all washing their cars at Soundararajan's Shakleton Rd home in Mt Eden around 4pm on 13 March of last year when the accident occurred.

While they continued with the chore, Soundararajan's wife also arrived home and parked her vehicle in the driveway, leaving her husband the key as she went inside.

"The victim then expressed concern that the washing of his wife's vehicle would cause water and dirt to be splashed onto his already clean Mercedes and so he asked the defendant to move the white [4WD] forward and to the right," according to the agreed summary of facts for the case. "At this time the victim was standing in front of the brick wall in between the garage and the front door of the house."

Although noticing the seat was positioned further forward than in his own car, Abraham was initially able to slowly move the vehicle without incident, court documents state. But then his brother-in-law asked him to move the vehicle forward about half of a metre farther.

"The defendant did as directed, and moved the vehicle a little forward, but when he applied the brake his foot was also partially on the accelerator pedal," court documents state. "The vehicle jumped forward and collided with the victim, pinning him between the vehicle and the thin strip of brick wall to the right of the garage door.

"The defendant panicked, and, believing that he was pressing the brake pedal only, pressed both the brake and the accelerator pedal a second time, further pushing the victim into the brick wall of the house."

Abraham later acknowledged to police that he should have adjusted the seat before driving.

Soundararajan was taken to hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries. He died two weeks later after suffering a ruptured ulcer on his small intestine. Doctors had found him unfit for surgery due to his deteriorated condition, authorities said.

His prolonged hospitalisation due to the accident was later listed as a secondary cause of death after the ulcer, as were his pre-existing health issues such as poorly managed diabetes.

In a victim impact statement read aloud in court today, Soundararajan's widow - who is also the defendant's older sister - said she believes what occurred was "purely a freak accident". Her husband, who considered Abraham a good friend, had agreed it was an accident as the two men spent hours together in hospital prior to his death, Sheba Soundararajan said.

She said it was "quite appalling" that police didn't meet with her husband to ask his opinion when he was alive. She blamed her husband's death on his treatment in hospital, telling the court that her husband had "repeatedly begged" for a CT scan but the ruptured ulcer wasn't discovered until it was too late.

Nevertheless, she said, she and her two daughters have avoided her brother since the death because of the memories he evokes and the "psychological trauma" that results.

"I think I'm tired and only want to focus on my daughters," she wrote.

Defence lawyer Louise Freyer said today that her client, who has no prior criminal history, has suffered not only the trauma of the incident itself but of having "essentially lost his family in New Zealand".

Freyer told the judge she tried to convince police to change the charge to careless driving causing injury instead of careless driving causing death, but they declined.

"The carelessness was so small but caused such devastating results," she said. "He is grief-stricken and traumatised."

She described her client as a former MIQ worker living in New Zealand on a work visa. If not granted a discharge without conviction, she argued, future applications by him and his wife for residency could be jeopardised.

Police prosecutor Alva Tohovaka-Staples opposed discharge without conviction due to the gravity of the offending.

But Judge Maxwell agreed with the defence that the case was "rather unusual" given the indirect correlation between the accident and the death.

"You have suffered much already and you will live the rest of your life with the knowledge of what occurred that day," she told the defendant. "The court acknowledged the close relationship that you had with your brother-in-law and acknowledges the difficulties for you and your wife moving forward."

She ordered that Abraham be disqualified from driving for six months.

Soundararajan's widow didn't attend today's hearing, but she emphasised her disappointment with the medical system in a subsequent interview with the Herald. If anything, she said, she hopes her family's situation serves as a warning for other families to be vigilant when loved ones are hospitalised.

Her husband had been laughing, joking and excited about going home just days before his death, she said. But then came intense pain and, eventually, the discovery of the hole in his intestine.

He was given the choice, she recalled, of undergoing immediate surgery that was almost guaranteed to fail or declining the surgery and spending his last 20 minutes with his family. She commended him for choosing the latter so that his family could say goodbye.